Never expect reality in a screwball comedy, and here, reality is about as likely to occur as a vacant Times Square on New Years Eve. It all surrounds a ripped up thousand dollar bill, tossed out of a window right on Broadway, with each half claimed by horse racing aficionado Joel McCrea and the down on her luck Joan Bennett, desperate for a job to send to her family up north. It turns out that she has no place to go so McCrea puts her up, and along with his pal Elisha Cook Jr., they scheme to turn the thousand dollars into something more.
Unfortunately, they have the bank robber (Bradley Page) who stole the money and a bank detective (Nat Pendleton) on their trail, but having gone from living in Allison Skipworth's apartment building to Andy Clyde's grain and fees businessmen, they're easy to lose. Lots of other wacky characters pop in and out of this wacky Universal farce including hobo Donald Meek and homeless British aristocrat Reginald Denny, a reflection of the aftermath of the depression.
The beautiful people played by McCrea and Bennett are easy to root for with McCrea a jokester but honorable and Bennett smart but loveable. Skipworth's landlady gets lots of funny moments, especially her reaction to the middle of the night raspberry she gets (as well as a delightful nickname), and silent comic Clyde is delightfully cantankerous but secretly a softy.
Page's villain is played for laughs (it's his drunken New York antics that causes the bill to be tossed out of the window in the first place), and Pendleton gets lots of laughs as well as his schemes to get the goods on McCrea and Bennett keeps blowing up in his face. Not among the great screwball comedies, it's still nice to see someone other than Carole Lombard, Jean Arthur or Claudette Colbert in this situation, and Bennett is well paired with McCrea. Truly a delightful find.
Unfortunately, they have the bank robber (Bradley Page) who stole the money and a bank detective (Nat Pendleton) on their trail, but having gone from living in Allison Skipworth's apartment building to Andy Clyde's grain and fees businessmen, they're easy to lose. Lots of other wacky characters pop in and out of this wacky Universal farce including hobo Donald Meek and homeless British aristocrat Reginald Denny, a reflection of the aftermath of the depression.
The beautiful people played by McCrea and Bennett are easy to root for with McCrea a jokester but honorable and Bennett smart but loveable. Skipworth's landlady gets lots of funny moments, especially her reaction to the middle of the night raspberry she gets (as well as a delightful nickname), and silent comic Clyde is delightfully cantankerous but secretly a softy.
Page's villain is played for laughs (it's his drunken New York antics that causes the bill to be tossed out of the window in the first place), and Pendleton gets lots of laughs as well as his schemes to get the goods on McCrea and Bennett keeps blowing up in his face. Not among the great screwball comedies, it's still nice to see someone other than Carole Lombard, Jean Arthur or Claudette Colbert in this situation, and Bennett is well paired with McCrea. Truly a delightful find.